Various methods are known for using steel tubes or pipes as part of a pier support system in a soil matrix and removing the soil matrix with drills or augers placed within the steel tubes; see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,425,713 and 6,688,815. It is also known to use steel tubes in pier support systems for modular residential or commercial buildings using rock anchors to anchor the pier support systems to solid bedrock; see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,094,873.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,771,518 is directed to a steel-reinforced, pre-cast concrete pier structure in which a uniform diameter hole is drilled to a sufficient depth into the earth and at a sufficient diameter to more than accommodate the outer diameter of each of the main pier elements. The main pier elements are defined by a central steel pipe around which is formed a tubular, steel-reinforced, pre-cast concrete section. After the pier element is lowered into the earth-drilled hole, loose aggregate material is dumped into the annular space between the outer surface of the pier element and in the central steel pipe interior. A quick-setting grout is injected through this central pipe down through the aggregate to the bottom of the pipe and up through the aggregate and fills the entire annular space occupied by the aggregate.
While it may be practical to drill a uniform diameter hole into the earth to a depth to accommodate the outer diameter of the pre-cast concrete pile as described in the '518 patent, there is a need for an improved method of installation of a pile in cases where drilling is done into bedrock usually at the bottom of a body of water, e.g., under a seabed or an ocean floor.